


kissing strangers

by a_miiraculer, clairelutra (exosolarmoon)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Humor, Partial Identity Reveal, Trapped In A Closet, no kisses, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-17 19:29:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14196111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_miiraculer/pseuds/a_miiraculer, https://archiveofourown.org/users/exosolarmoon/pseuds/clairelutra
Summary: all misinformation open to interpretationjust keep searchingme, hyperventilating, blocking up my circulationMarinette, a detransformed Chat, and Plagg trapped together in a dark closet. What happens next may surprise you!“How about a little hint, then?”Marinette perked up. “I’m listening.”Chat smothered a chuckle. “Alright, prepare yourself.”“I’m prepared.”“Really prepared?”“Reallyprepared.”“Alright then,” he said, withentirelytoo much pomp and circumstance. “I am… amodel.”





	kissing strangers

**Author's Note:**

> uncovering more old stuff on tumblr \o/
> 
> so anyway the story behind this was that i almost fuckin died at school one day and when i got home i banged this out and then cried and then slept for 12 hours
> 
> ...why is all my ventfic horrifyingly lighthearted and saccharine?
> 
> despite this note, the fic is fluff/humor/reveal shenanigans, and the only death is the braindeath of the reader as they watch marinette straight-up forget she's ladybug

“Don’t turn around.”

“I won’t,” Marinette promised, staring into the darkness with the afterimages of the storage closet burned into her retina by a brief flare bright green light.

“Sorry about all this,” Chat—or whoever Chat was when he wasn’t Chat—said, leaning a bit more firmly against her back, firmly enough that she could feel his elevated heartbeat, even though his breathing had already evened out. “I’m not sure where Ladybug is.”

Marinette, who knew _very_ well where Ladybug was, opted not to answer.

“Soooo… _hungry_ …”

“Eep!”

“ _Plagg!_ ”

Marinette placed a hand over her racing heart and sagged back against Chat with a tiny sigh.

“Ad—”

“Shh!!”

_…‘Ad—?’_

“Listen,” the tiny, rattling voice went on. It was somehow like a very miniature chainsaw, a cartoon character, and a refined old gent all at once, and Marinette was reminded of how Tikki could sound like every one of her five thousand years rolled into a single voice when she wanted to. “Cheese. Camembert. _Life_.”

“I got it, I got it,” Chat sighed, rustling through his clothing and presumably handing off sustenance to his exhausted kwami—Marinette couldn’t see. Chat caught her trying to peek at the kwami and clicked his tongue disapprovingly. “You _promised_ , princess.”

“Well, _excuse me_ for wanting to know a little more about you,” Marinette huffed, but gave up trying to catch sight of an arm or a kwami. She _had_ promised, after all.

Plus, it wasn’t like she could see much in the light coming from the crack under the door.

“You want to know about me?”

He didn’t have to sound _that_ surprised.

“Of course. Who wouldn’t?”

“I can think of someone,” he murmured, quiet enough to suggest she wasn’t supposed to hear it. (Guilt felt an awful lot like a sucker punch to the solar plexus, Marinette noted.) Then, louder, he said, “How about a little hint, then?”

Marinette perked up. “I’m listening.”

Chat smothered a chuckle. “Alright, prepare yourself.”

“I’m prepared.”

“Really prepared?”

“ _Really_ prepared.”

“Alright then,” he said, with _entirely_ too much pomp and circumstance. “I am… a _model_.”

Marinette burst out laughing.

“Se-Se-Seriously?” she gasped out between her giggles.

“You don’t have to laugh _that_ hard,” Chat grumbled.

Marinette detected a hint of hurt in his voice and choked back the next round of laughter.

“I’m laughing because I can see it,” she clarified, too bright and too deep at once, apology threading her words and guiding her hand to fumble for his and give it a squeeze. She let go fast, though, because she _really_ didn’t need an exact map of all the rough surfaces of his callouses stuck in her brain. Really.

Then, because mush just wasn’t how she and Chat rolled, she tacked on, “I mean, what with all the _posing_ you do.”

“ _Heeeey_.”

Satisfied with the balance of their dynamic once again, she elbowed his side behind her. “So you’re a teen model for the local leather boutiques, I presume?”

He was the one who laughed a little too hard that time. “Not quite.”

Marinette elbowed him again. “That was a totally legitimate guess, I’ll have you know.”

“Not why I was laughing,” he corrected her gently, squeezing her elbow with a heartstoppingly bare hand. “It’s just that my fath—… I’m never allowed to model leather.”

“So the suit is the embodiment of all your repressed desires?”

He snorted. “Something like that. Done, Plagg?”

“Eh,” Plagg said. “Not yet.”

“Do _you_ have a hint for me, Plagg?” Marinette asked, sweet as _dulce de leche_ , overriding Chat’s hiss of “ _Liar_.”

Plagg, sounding astonishingly like his holder, snorted. “Sure I do. He’s Adri—”

“Oh, look!” Chat said very loudly indeed. “The _akuma_.”

“He’s Ad—”

“The akuma _destroying Paris_.”

“He’s your _brie-forsaken_ —”

“The akuma destroying Paris _right now_ that we should _really go defeat_.”

“ _He’s Adrien Agreste!_ ”

Marinette, for the second time in as many minutes, burst out laughing.

“Yeah, right,” she drawled, words distorted by her ridiculous grin. “And I’m _Ladybug_.”

Chat, behind her, sighed. “Just eat the cheese, Plagg.”

…

_Wait a minute—_

_I **am** Ladybug!  
_

“You’re both _idiots_.”

 _Those callouses felt an awful lot like **fencing** callouses_, Marinette thought faintly.

“Yeah, yeah.”

_‘It’s just my fath—… I’m never allowed to model leather.‘_

And wasn’t Gabriel known for being very strict with what his son did and didn’t model?

“Okay, I’m done.” _—you impatient asshole._

And hadn’t Plagg nearly called Chat ‘Adrien’ before he was aware of Marinette’s presence?

“ _Finally_ — Transform me!”

 _Holy shit Chat Noir is_ —

She whipped around just in time to watch the bright green light fade into her battle-forged best friend. “You’re—”

He squeezed her shoulder, exactly like Adrien did, and said, “Stay safe, princess,” before busting out into the building proper, metaphorical guns blazing.

_“Adrien?!”_


End file.
